I always enjoyed the Flintstones cartoon show while I was growing up. During high school, a friend of mine began tagging all the members of our class with a Flintstonization of our names. I think I was the only one who found it amusing (other than the originator). Anyway, his adaptation of Brandt into Brandtrock still amuses me, so I have clung to it.
The same friend who dubbed me Brandtrock got me interested in computers. The earliest experiences being on Apple II's and a DecWriter that was "connected" to a nearby community college. Fortunately for us, our instructor was a computer geek before being a computer geek was cool (has it ever become cool for anyone except Mr. Gates). We got to tinker around with PASCAL and assembly language on an independent study basis.
At the Junior College I went to I took a class in PASCAL and dabbled in COBOL but I soon abandoned any thoughts of programming in favor of becomeing an accountant ('cause I'd hate to be thought of as introverted and boring).
My desire to follow a career in accounting was on track well enough; degree from Iowa State University, passed all sections of the CPA exam in one go, then I got into the "real world" and began using my computer skills to tweak Lotus 1-2-3 :devil2: and eventually Excel. Spreadsheets were addictive to me. Spreadsheets that did more than a glorified calculator (ie., add, subtract, multiply, and divide) really grabbed hold of me.
I have worked in a number of positions within the financial and banking industry. In each of these positions, working with vast quantities of numbers was routine. I have worked with everything from a system of worksheets that would analyze and dissect the components of property and casualty insurance rates to spreadsheets that served as nothing more than simple calculator sheets.
As word of the worksheets that Fixed Assets (my section of the accounting department) was using spread, the tax department, the internal audit department, the external auditors and two independent consultants began pestering my boss and I to the point that we were spending more time doing "other duties as assigned" than our actual jobs. Our process was being run by the other two staff accountants with our help at crunch time.
I finally took the plunge into consulting and have been "doing my own thing" since 02/2002
VBA with Visio, AutoCAD, FrontPage, and CorelDraw were places I had never even dreamed of going until I began reading and answering questions on this forum. I try not to settle for "We've always done it that way!" when looiking at the design of a solution to a problem. VBAX keeps opening my eyes in regards to the methods available to craft a solution. Integrating Ivan's motto with one of my favorites, I have come up with "Yabba Dabba CAN Do!"
Enough of my rambling though, the bird inside my computer is tired of chipping away at the tablet. :rofl:
TJ Brandt, a.k.a. JT Brandtrock
